Monday, April 9, 2018 - The Miracle Story of Mark

This week was kinda crazy.  On Monday SISTER EGGETT, now Ariel, took us to lunch.  It was crazy to see her visiting the mission with her family and weird to hear her called her first name.  I loved seeing her.

Tuesday we spent in Edinburgh at All Scotland Conference.  It was great to be surrounded by so many missionaries, see old friends, and be uplifted by the council from our leaders.

But the best part of the week... Mark's baptism!  It is so amazing to see your friends take the step of baptism.  Mark was prepared by God to hear the message of the Restored Gospel.  I'm just grateful that I got to be apart of it.

The Miracle Story of Mark!

Mark's door was chapped in mid December.  At the time he was busy, but scheduled an appointment to meet with the missionaries for the following week.  He then rescheduled FIVE different times before finally meeting with the missionaries.

Mark has a Master's Degree in Theology and has an extensive knowledge of the Bible.  He had read many other religious books before and had even read the Book of Mormon!  After being taught about the Holy Ghost he was able to recognize the importance of praying to understand the truth.

One week later when the missionaries met with him he had read through the entire Book of Mormon again, received an answer of its truthfulness, and had strengthened his desire to be baptised.  We were so blessed to be involved in teaching Mark and are grateful for the other missionaries and ward members involved in the teaching as well!  He was so prepared.  Every lesson leading up to baptism he expressed his desire to help others to learn and grow in the church and teach the Restored Gospel.  Following his confirmation he also received the Aaronic Priesthood in the same day.  He can't wait to be a part of Ministering and teach what he knows to be true for the next two years as he will be a minister on a submarine.  God truly prepares His children and His work is hastening!

The Pre-Miracle (behind closed doors of actually setting up a baptism) Story!

So we got to the church in plenty of time to set up and make sure everything worked with the font, etc, etc.  We had to prime the water heater for an hour and a half, but that's no problem we had loads to do.  We went to check out the font.  We were told the font was clean..........it wasn't.  It hadn't been used for 6 months, but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in about 6 years.  So what do the problem solving, go get em, sister missionaries do?!?!  They make it work.  You can't exactly clean a baptismal font in a dress, wearing boots, and tights.  So what did I do?  Grabbed the basketball shorts that I had left in the car, went barefoot, and wore a shirt that came from the baptismal clothing.  We found some chemicals and got to work.  WHEN I SAY THE FONT WAS NASTY IT WAS NASTY.  We're talking spider guts and LIVE SPIDERS and I just had to deal with it and clean them up.  I kid you not I had to pray for strength.

I'm just grateful that Sister Anderson and I were the only ones at the church and no one saw me in the outfit I was wearing.  After that almost everything ran smoothly, but they say there's no such thing as a baptism that runs perfectly.

I also tried to hug a sheep this week in Oban, but they ran away from me.